"The Leper's Companion" By Julie Blackburn (Fiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Alex Abramovich
In the year 1410, a tormented group of English villagers follow their priest on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
(04/26/99)
Berryman's Shakespeare: Essays, Letters, and Other Writings By John Berryman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Alex Abramovich
A fearless modern poet conjures Shakespeare, including an essay based on a famous lecture that enraptured audiences, and reveals himself
(03/26/99)
We Must Love one Another or Die: The Life and Legacies of Larry Kramer Edited by Lawrence D. Mass (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Adox
A series of essays -- some fond, some not -- about the legendary and controversial gay activist and playwright Larry Kramer
(03/20/98)
The Tiny One By Eliza Minot (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Lindsay Amon
An 8-year-old faces the death of
her mother.
(11/08/99)
Sexually Speaking: Collected Sex Writings By Gore Vidal (Nonfiction)
Cleis Press, Reviewed by Saul Anton
In his essays on the topic, the author grimaces at the effects of 2,000 years of Judeo-Christian morality.
(08/20/99)
The Haygoods of Columbus: A Family Memoir By Wil Haygood (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Jabari Asim
A Boston Globe reporter delivers precise and warmhearted recollections of growing up black in Columbus, Ohio.
Soul Kiss By Shay Youngblood (Fiction)
Riverhead, reviewed by Jabari Asim
A complex, erotic first novel about a girl's odyssey toward adulthood in small-town Georgia.
Grown Up All Wrong: 75 Great Rock and Pop Artists from Vaudeville to Techno By Robert Christgau (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Spirited and probing essays on great rock and pop artists, from the long-time Village Voice music critic
(12/01/98)
The Rum Diary By Hunter S. Thompson (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Thompson's ungonzo first novel, left unpublished until now, is a languid tale about a young American journalist in the tropics.
(10/15/98)
I Am Jackie Chan By Jackie Chan with Jeff Yang (Nonfiction)
Ballantine, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
This memoir from the Hong Kong action star isn't as bare-knuckled as his best films, but fans will love the nitty-gritty detail.
(08/28/98)
In the Country of Country By Nicholas Dawidoff (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Packed with interviews and anecdotes, this engrossing, nostalgic book contrasts country music's fabled past with its troubled present.
Rainbow Six By Tom Clancy (Fiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
Eco-terrorists plan to unleash a deadly Ebola-like virus on the entire world! No problem: Clancy's latest hero, Jack Clark, is on the case.
(08/25/98)
Super Vixens' Dymaxion Lounge By Hillary Johnson (Nonfiction)
Buzz Books/St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
An intelligent and surprisingly gripping series of essays about Los Angeles by the columnist for Buzz magazine.
Payback By Thomas Kelly (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
An ambitious first novel about two brothers and their dirty doings during the construction boom in New York City during the 1980s.
The Exes By Pagan Kennedy (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A spunky, tuneful novel about a Boston-based band comprised entirely of former lovers
(07/08/98)
The New Men: Inside the Vatican's school for American priests By Brian Murphy (Nonfiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A peek inside the cloistered world of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where the next generation of priests is trained.
Gorilla Suit: My Adventures in Bodybuilding By Bob Paris (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A winner of the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests in the 1980s, writes about the sport and his coming out as a gay athlete.
The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim By Richard Pollak (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Russ Baker
An exposé of the eminent psychologist and author of "The Uses of Enchantment," whose life and career appear to have been a fraud.
So Forth By Joseph Brodsky (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
This Nobel Prize winner's final, posthumous book of poetry is his most intimate and confessional.
The Book of Man By Barry Graham (Fiction)
Serpent's Tail, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
A sensible, sweet-natured tale of a writer, his heroin-addicted mentor, and a great deal of vomiting.
Pollen By Jeff Noon (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
The follow-up to "Vurt," last year's engaging cult novel, is a fable about a mind-altering drug that -- we're not kidding -- may make everyone sneeze to death in one big explosion of phlegm.
Maribou Stork Nightmares By Irvine Welsh (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
A startling and surreal tour through the mind of a Scottish football thug.
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories By Angela Carter (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
This collection, from a gifted fictional maximalist who bathed in luxurious sentences, charts the arc of her fascinating career.
Caught Inside By Daniel Duane (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
A chronicle of Northern California surf culture, from a young writer who, unemployed, decided to spend a year searching for the ultimate wave.
Men in Black By John Harvey (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
An historical investigation of that most fashionable and funereal of all sartorial choices, wearing black.
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again By David Foster Wallace (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
This collection of essays is an eclectic mix of literary criticism, cultural analysis and humorous observations on life.
Saint Augustine By Garry Wills (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Allen Barra
The newest title in the Penguin Lives series is swift, invigorating and disappointing.
(06/29/99)
Ghost Town By Robert Coover (Fiction)
Henry Holt, Reviewed by Allen Barra
In this funny, phantasmagorical book -- sometimes the hero is an outlaw, sometimes he's the sheriff -- Robert Coover re-imagines the Western novel.
(09/24/98)
THE MUHAMMAD ALI READER Edited by Gerald Early (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, Reviewed by Allen Barra
A collection of essays -- from Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, among others -- that seeks to tease out Ali's multiple meanings
(07/22/98)
Night Train By Martin Amis (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by Allen Barra
From the well-known British novelist, a change-up: a slim detective novel set in the United States
(01/26/97)
Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class By Lawrence Otis Graham (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Karen Grigsby Bates
An aspirant to the African-American nobility tells what they won't.
(02/04/99)
The Sandglass By Romesh Gunesekera (Fiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Tom Beer
From a promising young writer, whose last novel was short-listed for the Booker Prize, a tale about Sri Lankan immigrants in London.
(10/01/98)
Rich Media, Poor Democracy By Robert McChesney (Nonfiction)
University of Illinois Press, Reviewed by Dustin Beilke
A communications
authority eyeballs the current media merger mania and offers some hard and
fast suggestions for doing better.
(11/22/99)
A Book of Reasons By John Vernon (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dustin Beilke
Looking into the reclusive life of his late brother, a novelist produces an anti-memoir.
(09/17/99)
"The Stakeholder Society" By Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstott (Nonfiction)
Yale University Press, Reviewed by Dustin Beilke
Give everybody $80,000. After that they're on their own.
(04/28/99)
"Cruddy" By Lynda Barry (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, review by Heidi Bell
A tender and goofy illustrated novel
about a kid whose parents' beatings can't keep her down.
(01/13/00)
Walkin' the Dog By Walter Mosley (Fiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
The stories in this new collection flirt dangerously with agitprop but wind up delivering a cumulative shock.
(10/07/99)
"The Holocaust in American Life" and "The Americanization of the Holocaust" (Nonfiction)
Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
Two books ask how -- and why -- a European catastrophe became central to American culture.
(06/10/99)
Blindness By José Saramago (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Jesse Berrett
From the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for literature, a gripping allegorical novel about an epidemic of "white blindness"
(10/16/98)
8 Ball Chicks: A Year in the Violent World of Girl Gangsters By Gini Sikes (Nonfiction)
Anchor, reviewed by Nell Bernstein
A journalist's report on the lives of female gangsters in three American inner cities.
Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945-46 Edited by Omar Pound and Robert Spoo (Nonfiction)
Oxford University Press, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The letters of the poet and his long-suffering wife illuminate his imprisonment for treason, their complicated marriage and his growing madness.
(02/26/99)
The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets By David Lehman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The New York School of Poets -- Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery et al. -- never made as much noise as the Beats, but this skillful history demonstrates their enduring influence.
(10/19/98)
The Lord Will
Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy By David Klinghoffer (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, Reviewed by Sarah Blustain
The conservative child of secular Jews traces his path to religious fundamentalism.
(01/25/99)
Moscow Days By Gallina Dutkina (Nonfiction)
Kodansha, reviewed by Esther Wachs Book
Dutkina, a well-known Russian journalist, explores the economic and political realities -- including women's issues, class divisions, and crime -- of everyday life in the post-Soviet era.
"Moth Smoke" By Mohsin Hamid (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Sudip Bose
A darkly seductive debut novel
evokes the anxieties of urban life in Pakistan.
(01/06/00)
Breakfast With Scot By Michael Downing (Fiction)
Counterpoint Press, Reviewed by Greg Bottoms
In a smart, funny and
affecting novel, two gay men inherit an 11-year-old boy and blanch when he
turns out to be a budding queen.
(11/16/99)
In the Jaws of the Black Dogs
By John Bentley Mays (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Greg Bottoms
A brilliant account of depression suggests that at century's end memoir may be our most dynamic form.
(09/09/99)
Where the Roots Reach for Water
By Jeffery Smith (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, reviewed by Greg Bottoms
A brilliant account of depression suggests that at century's end memoir may be our most dynamic form.
(09/09/99)
Paris Trance By Geoff Dyer (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Greg Bottoms
Working without plot, a novelist creates a prose photograph of a time and a place.
(07/12/99)
Flyboy Action Figure Comes With Gasmask By Jim Munroe (Fiction)
Spike Books, Reviewed by David Bowman
A weird
and wonderful first novel comes up with a couple of unlikely superheroes.
(11/19/99)
Soft! By Rupert Thomson (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Bowman
A comic novel about a British advertising executive who promotes his new product -- a soft-drink called "Soft!" -- through subliminal brainwashing.
(11/20/98)
AREA 51: The Dreamland Chronicles: The Legend of America's Most Secret Military Base By David Darlington (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, Reviewed by David Bowman
One journalist's account of the vibrant UFO-centric culture in Nevada, where many true-believers insist aliens have landed
(12/17/97)
Stone Cowboy By Mark Jacobs (Fiction)
Soho Press, reviewed by David Bowman
A first novel, set in Bolivia, about a stoned-out American who's trying to score enough money to get home.
NixonCarver By Mark Maxwell (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Bowman
A smart, funny first novel about an imaginary friendship between Richard M. Nixon and Raymond
(02/24/98)
Vodka, Tears, and Lenin's Angel By Jennifer Gould (Nonfiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Michael Boxall
A dispatch, from a talented young journalist, about greed, insanity -- and freedom -- in the former Soviet Union.
The Story of the Night By Colm Toibin (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by Michael Boxall
About a gay man's observations of Argentina's deep political problems, this novel is full of images that explode like land mines.
Bunny Modern By David Bowman (Fiction)
Little, Brown Reviewed by David Bowman
In this review, the author of "Let the Dog Drive" faces the ultimate critic of his second novel: himself
(02/09/98)
A Conspiracy of Tall Men By Noah Hawley (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by David Bowman
Don DeLillo meets 'The X-Files' in this novel about a professor of 'conspiracy theory' whose wife is killed in a suspicious airplane accident
(07/10/98)
Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker By Ved Mehta (Nonfiction)
Overlook, Reviewed by David Bowman
A memoir about the editing genius -- and the idiosyncrasies -- of famed New Yorker editor William Shawn.
(05/22/98)
LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN DESERT: Sojourns in the Greater Southwest By Alex Shoumatoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Bowman
A tough-minded first novel, narrated by a misfit high school girl who finds solace in surfing the Southern California coast.
(12/09/97)
Our War By David Harris (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Fred Branfman
A passionate account of the Vietnam War, from a writer who argues that Americans have refused to confront the war's moral issues.
What's Love Got To Do with It? A Critical Look at American Charity By David Wagner (Nonfiction)
New Press, review by Frank Browning
An argument that American charity lines the pockets of the well-heeled while it screws the poor.
(02/04/00)
The Coming of the Night By John Rechy (Fiction)
Grove Press, reviewed by Frank Browning
The gay novelist veers toward camp and very nearly touches greatness.
(09/08/99)
MagnificentÊ Corpses By Anneli Rufus (Nonfiction)
Marlowe & Company, reviewed by Frank Browning
A guide to saints' relics in Europe should satisfy the most grisly-minded readers.
(08/05/99)
The Elusive Embrace By Daniel Mendelsohn (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Frank Browning
Reflecting on questions of love, lust and gay identity, a classical scholar turns up meaning in unexpected places.
(06/03/99)
Mondo Desperado By Patrick McCabe (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, review by Austin Bunn
By the author of "The Butcher Boy," a collection of stories pitch-black down to their funny Irish toes. (03/13/00)
"Nobrow" by John Seabrook and "No Logo" by Naomi Klein (Nonfiction)
Context, review by Austin Bunn
A self-revealing reflection on the sick fixations of the media elite stalls out. Is a guerrilla war enough to wake them up?
(02/15/00)
The Wonders of the Invisible World By David Gates (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
These brooding, crushingly accurate stories are as forgiving as they come.
(06/30/99)
Misadventures in the (213) By Dennis Hensley (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Shallow riffs on Los Angeles and its discontents, from a young Detour magazine columnist.
(07/14/98)
Sweet Machine By Mark Doty (Fiction)
HarperFlamingo, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Poetry about New York street life, romance and writing, from the author of the memoir "Heaven's Coast"
(05/07/98)
SLOW MOTION: A True Story By Dani Shapiro (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Lily Burana
A spare and elegant memoir, from the author of 'Picturing the Wreck,' about her life after her parents were nearly killed in a devastating car accident.
(07/27/98)
The Itch By Benilde Little (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Lily Burana
From the author of "Good Hair," a brisk, engaging look at the lives of two urban, upwardly mobile black women
(06/19/98)
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women By Elizabeth Wurtzel (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Lily Burana
An examination, from the author of "Prozac Nation," of how women are punished, and men aren't, for certain types of behavior.
(04/20/98)
Funny Boy By Shyam Selvadurai (Fiction)
William Morrow, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
A promising first novel, from a young Sri Lankan writer, about love, race and politics, set amidst the 1983 Sinhalese-Tamil riots.
The Gettin' Place By Susan Straight (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
The patriarch of an extended black family comes under siege when two murdered white women are found on his land.
Self-Portrait with Woman By Andrzej Szczypiorski (Fiction)
Grove, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
Memory as history and love as oppression are the twin themes of this complex novel about a "doomed romantic" in Warsaw.
Give Us A Kiss: A Country Noir By Daniel Woodrell (Fiction)
Holt, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
A rollicking, white trash libretto about two brothers hiding out from the law in the heart of the Ozarks.
Book of Shadows: A Modern Woman's Journey into the Wisdom of Witchcraft and the Magic of the Goddess By Phyllis Curott (Nonfiction)
Broadway, Reviewed by Lisa Carver
The author, a Harvard grad and a high-powered attorney, writes about her preoccupation with witches, magic and goddess worship.
(10/26/98)
Ithaka: A Daughter's Memoir of Being Found By Sarah Saffian (Nonfiction)
Basic, Reviewed by Maud Casey
A memoir, from a young New York journalist, about being "found" by the parents who gave her up for adoption 23 years earlier.
(12/16/98)
In the Wilderness By Kim Barnes (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Maud Casey
In this small, almost mythic memoir, the poet Kim Barnes examines her difficult coming of age and her family's hardscrabble past in the Idaho woods.
Heroes Like Us By Thomas Brussig (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Maud Casey
From a young German writer, a political fantasy about how one man's sexual obsessions helped bring down the Berlin Wall.
(12/02/97)
Nobody's Girl By Antonya Nelson (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Maud Casey
Set in small-town New Mexico, the author's second novel is about a young school teacher who becomes involved in a local mystery
(02/13/98)
A Crime In the Neighborhood By Suzanne Berne (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, reviewed by Maud Casey
Set in Washington, D.C., in 1972, this novel is about a murder -- and one family's break-up -- during the Watergate years.
Lightning Song By Lewis Nordan (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Maud Casey
A tale about an eccentric Mississippi family and its llama farm, from a writer known for his folksy storytelling panache.
Roustabout By Michelle Chalfoun (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Maud Casey
A first novel, related with haunting integrity, about an adolescent girl who is the only female crew member in a traveling circus.
Bucking the Sun By Ivan Doig (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Maud Casey
A big, strapping novel about the building of the monumental Fort Peck Dam over the Missouri River in the 1930s.
Short Stories of Langston Hughes By Langston Hughes, edited by Akiba Sullivan Harper (Fiction)
Hill and Wang, reviewed by Maud Casey
Sharp and subtle stories -- many of them long out of print -- from the noted black poet and fiction writer.
Radio Priest By Donald Warren (Nonfiction)
Free Press, reviewed by Maud Casey
A biography of Father James Coughlin ("The Father of Hate Radio"), who reached some 16 million listeners in the 1930s and '40s.
The Frequency of Souls By Mary Kay Zuravleff (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Maud Casey
An illicit romance between two refrigerator engineers becomes a quirky meditation on the mysteries of electricity, love and death.
The Giant's House By Elizabeth McCracken (Fiction)
Dial, reviewed by Neil Casey
One of Granta's 20 "best young American novelists" charts the unlikely romance between a librarian and the tallest man in the world.
The Ultimate Terrorists By Jessica Stern (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Tim Cavanaugh
Weapons of mass destruction in the hands of fringe groups? Don't panic, a new study advises.
(03/23/99)
Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories By John Allen Paulos (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Heather Chaplin
The author of "Innumeracy," charmingly attempts to bridge the gulf that separates literary and mathematical culture.
(11/11/98)
The Funnies By J. Robert Lennon (Fiction)
Riverhead Books, Reviewed by Alexander Chee
A new novel ferrets out the torment behind the funny little drawings in a family comic strip
(03/19/99)
My War Gone By, I Miss It So By Anthony Loyd (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Judith Coburn
A jaded British
correspondent feeds his smack habit in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(01/28/00)
The Dragon Hunt By Tran Vu (Fiction)
Hyperion, Reviewed by Judith Coburn
In his first collection in English, an expatriate Vietnamese author tells grueling (and highly original) stories of suffering.
(07/20/99)
"Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti" By Patricia Albers (Nonfiction)
Clarkson Potter, Reviewed by Sarah Coleman
A biographer uncovers new material on the Italian-born photographer, actress, revolutionary and spy.
(05/04/99)
For Common Things: Irony, Trust, and Commitment in America Today By Jedediah Purdy (Nonfiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, reviewed by Caleb Crain
A fresh-faced 24-year-old with a prescription for a better America is way, way out of his depth.
(09/07/99)
The Way People Run By Christopher Tilghman (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Gary Crist
Earnest and unhurried, Christopher Tilghman's short stories are wonderfully out of step with the times.
(05/20/99)
The Fundamentals of Play By Caitlin Macy (Fiction)
Random House, review by Dan Cryer
The rich have rules but they won't explain them, according to a smart novel about life after the Ivy League. (05/12/00)
Ex Libris By Anne Fadiman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
An unapologetic confession of raging bibliophilia, from the editor of the American Scholar and the author of last year's fine "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down."
(10/07/98)
Death in Summer By William Trevor (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
In this stark and often violent rendering of Britain's class divisions, a young shoplifting runaway becomes a nanny at a stately country home.
(09/25/98)
The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat (Fiction)
Soho Press, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
Is Danticat Haiti's great gift to American literature, or simply overrated? Her third book, about a little-known massacre, gives credence to the latter interpretation.
(08/31/98)
Cavedweller By Dorothy Allison (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
From the author of "Bastard Out of Carolina," a novel about a rock singer who returns to her Bible Belt hometown.
(03/09/98)
Echo House By Ward Just (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dan Cryer
A sprawling novel about three generations of Washington power players, by the master chronicler of the political world.
Girls By Frederick Busch (Fiction)
Harmony, reviewed by Dan Cryer
An intellectual mystery novel about a security chief at an upstate New York college investigating the case of a missing girl.
Speaking Freely: A Memoir By Nat Hentoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dan Cryer
A memoir from the scrappy journalist best known for his jazz writing and his idiosyncratic political columns for the Village Voice.
Charming Billy By Alice McDermott (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Dan Cryer
A lovely novel that investigates the late Billy Lynch, a sweet raconteur whose wake is the occasion for a reunion of friends
(01/09/97)
No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court By Edward Humes (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Brenda Coughlin
The author, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, spent a year in Los Angeles' Juvenile Hall to research this look at how America treats young offenders.
Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden (Fiction)
Knopf Fiction, reviewed by Dan Cryer
When female charm was an art.
Peace and Its Discontents By Edward Said (Nonfiction)
Vintage, reviewed by Matthew Dallek
Essays on the Middle East peace process, from the noted Palestinian literary critic and scholar.
The First Eagle By Tony Hillerman (Fiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Suzette Lalime Davidson
The author's stalwart Navajo policemen heroes return in a thriller about a missing scientist who's been researching bubonic plague.
(10/05/98)
Like a Hole in the Head By Jen Banbury (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Suzette Lalime Davidson
A noirish mystery novel, about a used-bookstore employee, that reads as if it were written by a feminized Dashiel Hammett.
(05/01/98)
Shopping By Gavin Kramer (Fiction)
Soho Press, review by Matthew DeBord
A doomed East-West romance set in a Tokyo of brand-name whores and green-tea-flavored condoms. (05/09/00)
Rembrandt's Eyes By Simon Schama (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Matthew DeBord
A new biography charts the
troubled painter's rivalry with the worldly, successful Peter Paul Rubens.
(11/18/99)
The Predictors By Thomas A. Bass (Nonfiction)
Holt and Co., Reviewed by Lee Dembart
Can two mathematicians use chaos theory to master the stock market?
(10/14/99)
"The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction" By Linda Gordon (Nonfiction)
Harvard University Press, Reviewed by Debra Dickerson
A historian
unearths a bizarre-but-true story of New York nuns, Irish Catholic orphans,
their Mexican-American would-be parents and a white Protestant lynch mob.
(12/13/99)
A Beautiful Mind By Sylvia Nasar (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Richard Dooling
A lucid, restrained bio of a Nobel Prize-winning mathematical genius who succumbed to, then overcame, madness
(06/29/98)
"Tea" By Stacey D'Erasmo (Fiction)
Algonquin Books, review by Dennis Drabelle
A charming first novel presents three
snapshots of a girl growing up lesbian in the '60s and '70s Philadelphia.
(01/11/00)
Assuming the Position By Rick Whitaker (Nonfiction)
Four Walls/Eight Windows , Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
A onetime hustler takes a long, hard look at the Life.
(10/08/99)
The Spell By Alan Hollinghurst (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle
Alan Hollinghurst returns with variations on a gay quartet.
(04/29/99)
CASANOVA: The Man Who Really Loved Women By Lydia Flem (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Tim Duggan
A biography of the legendary lothario, from a writer who argues that Casanova was -- among other things -- a proto-feminist(11/26/97)
Fasting, Feasting By Anita Desai (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, review by Sylvia Brownrigg
Unhappy Indian families are unhappy in their own way, too, the author demonstrates in this Booker Prize finalist.
(02/17/00)
Original Bliss By A.L. Kennedy (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Sylvia Brownrigg
Deserted by God, a lonely Glaswegian finds improbable romance with a hardcore porn addict in A.L. Kennedy's new novel
(01/14/99)
Lucky By Alice Sebold(Nonfiction)
Scribner's, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
By Sally Eckhoff
A memoir of rape that's just about everything you'd expect it not to be
(09/27/99)
Brown Dog of the Yaak By Rick Bass (Nonfiction)
The Dream of the Marsh Wren By Pattiann Rogers (Nonfiction)
Milkweed Editions, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
Two authors confront the dramas of the natural world and the writing life.
(07/23/99)
... Or Not To Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes Edited by Mark Etkind (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From Adolf Hitler's to Kurt Cobain's to O.J. Simpson's, this ghoulishly entrancing book includes suicide notes from the famous and not.
Tales from Watership Down By Richard Adams (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
Nineteen striking stories about the secret lives of rabbits, in a book that's a sequel of sorts to the author's classic "Watership Down."
!Yo! By Julia Alvarez(Fiction)
Algonquin Books, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
The story of a rambunctious writer, told by her friends, family and a stalker, from the author of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents."
The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology that Breaks Your Heart By Ruth Behar (Nonfiction)
Beacon, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A passionate argument for a controversial brand of first-person anthropology that grips the emotions as well as the intellect.
Unravelling By Elizabeth Graver (Fiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
In this first novel, an adventurous young 19th century woman flees hearth and family for the lure of the Massachusetts mills.
Tearing The Silence: On Being German In America By Ursula Hegi (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From the author of "Stones from the River," a journalistic look at the troubled and painful heritage of German-Americans.
Why the Tree Loves the Ax By Jim Lewis (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A disaffected and often violent thriller about a young woman in the South, from the author of the novel "Sister."
(02/19/98)
Animal Husbandry By Laura Zigman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
When a TV producer named Jane Goodall loses yet another boyfriend, she searches the natural world for lessons about commitment
(01/05/97)
Birds of America By Lorrie Moore (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Dave Eggers
Lorrie Moore likes to write about broken people, but she's one of the funniest writers alive. This collection of short stories captures her at the top of her form
(10/02/98)
Trail Fever By Michael Lewis (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Eggers
A loser-obsessed memoir of the 1996 presidential campaign, based on the author's engaging dispatches for The New Republic.
Steven Spielberg:A Biography By Joseph McBride (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by David Eggers
The best and most comprehensive biography yet of Spielberg, the most successful film director of the 20th century.
Holy Clues: The Gospel According to Sherlock Holmes By Stephen Kendrick (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Sean Elder
Was the redoubtable detective a mouthpiece for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's spiritual beliefs?
(07/07/99)
"The Coldest Winter Ever" By Sister Souljah (Fiction)
Pocket Books, Reviewed by Sean Elder
Sister Souljah gives herself a starring role in her first novel.
(04/12/99)
"Home Town" By Tracy Kidder (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Kristin Eliasberg
It's a nice town. A very nice town. Zzzzzzzz ...
(05/06/99)
"Seeing Through Places: Reflections on Geography and Identity" By Mary Gordon (Nonfiction)
Scribners, review by Rachel Elson
The author excavates the houses of her youth in search of
answers to her adult dilemmas.
(01/12/00)
Feeding Frenzy By Stuart Stevens (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, reviewed by Andrew Essex
An account of a feverish European road trip, in which the author attempts to eat at every three-star Michelin restaurant.
Miss Manners' Basic Training Eating By Judith Martin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Andrew Essex
Smart, funny advice, from the nationally known columnist, about how to survive even the most complex mealtime challenges.